Timothee Chalamet, the 22-year-old actor who is up for the Best Actor Oscar nod for his performance in Call Me By Your Name, is not only the breakout star of 2017 but is now a part of the younger, hipper Hollywood contingent that includes the likes of Lady Bird star Saoirse Ronan and Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya. The three were seen recently at the Oscar luncheon as well.
Now the young star, a first time Oscar nominee, has just appeared on the cover of VMAN (39) magazine where he is interviewed by film director Xavier Dolan and musician Frank Ocean.
During the interview, Chalamet spoke about the film that has put him at the center of attention. On being called by his Call Me By Your Name character’s name, he stated, “That’s been happening. Though riding the 2 train or taking the M12 bus around the city, that hasn’t changed; I guess people don’t really give a f*** in New York. I actually get more people stopping me for Lady Bird, and going, ‘Is that the douchebag from Lady Bird?’ So that’s awesome.”
He also spoke about nostalgia for the past and noted, “I’m a total ‘nostalgist’ and Call Me By Your Name’s director, Luca [Guadagnino], grew up in that time period. In fact, the book is set in ’88 and he changed it to ’83 because he said that was the year in your life you can hear music from. In the movie, there’s Talking Heads, The Psychedelic Furs, or just the Bach or Beethoven—those are all songs from Luca’s youth, what it was like for him in Italy in the ’80s. Also, in 1988, the AIDS crisis had already hit and that was part of the reasoning for making [the film] a little bit earlier too, so it wasn’t as intense, and could be a little more utopic. What a tragedy for movies now that if you want to be contemporary, phones have to be involved, with texting and FaceTime. I don’t know if [the characters in] Call Me By Your Name would ever have that relationship if there was passive-aggressive commenting and ‘likes.’ They actually had to talk, figure each other out, and struggle with their emotions.”
The interview lauded by many is forthcoming as Chamalet spoke about film, music, and the art that influences him with Ocean and Dolan. When asked about acting, he noted, “I had this feeling I couldn’t not act and yet to get there I really needed teachers, and one teacher in particular, to make me comfortable with failing. To be bad and get over it—that opened the floodgates.”
